As for the cash register, a woman in her thirties took it over. She had belatedly answered Roan’s ad. “I didn’t see it until I changed the bottom of the birdcage,” she told Roan when she’d arrived early that morning. “My name is Danielle, Danni for short. I think I’m intelligent, I’ve been known to be creative, and I have some talents, but I am not and never have been entertaining. Sorry. However, I used to work in a restaurant.” Her eyes were alive with merriment as she said this.
She was a pretty woman, with dark hair and eyes, a bit too much on her hips, but her large top balanced her. She was immediately likable.
Sophie, up to her elbows in soup making, left it all to Roan, but when Carter nudged her shoulder, she looked up. Roan, big, gruff-looking, was staring down at pretty Danni in silence.
Sophie grabbed a dry cloth, wiped her hands, and went around the counter. “Can you run a cash register?”
“Yes,” Danni said, her voice calm and pleasant.
“Then you’re hired. Roan tends to argue with people over money.” She looked up at him, and he was still staring at Danielle. “You have pastry duty today,” she said softly, then when he didn’t respond, she raised her voice. “Roan! Pastries?”
“I like them,” he said.
Shaking her head, Sophie went back to her soup and Carter caught her eye. “I smell love in the air,” he said.
“Yes, you and Kelli do make a good pair.”
At that, Kelli laughed and Carter’s face turned red.
When Kelli went to the back to get something, Carter whispered, “Is it that obvious? I mean, can everyone see that I like her?”
Sophie thought about making a joke but she didn’t. “Your father won’t approve of her.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said, and for a moment he kept slicing cheese, but then he stopped. “You know something? I don’t care anymore. Sophie, my fear of losing Treeborne Foods made me do something I’ll always regret. I lost you.”
She stepped back from him. “If this is—”
“No. That’s not what I’m saying. Even if my father hadn’t interfered I don’t think you and I would have been good for each other.”
“Are you referring to the fact that I was in awe of you?”
“No, I liked that part.”
With a laugh, Sophie hit him on the shoulder. “Some prince you are!”
“That’s it,” Carter said. “I could never have lived up to what you thought I was. I saw it in your eyes and when I was with you I felt that I was a great and powerful being.”
“I never thought that about you.”
“I was always afraid that you’d see the coward that I actually was. I’ve been terrified of my father all my life.”
“There’s a whole town afraid of him,” she said.
“But I’m not anymore.”
“Because of Kelli?”
“Yes or no,” Carter said. “Mostly no. I see now that I can earn my own living.”
“What you make here isn’t going to supply you with what you’ve grown up with,” she said.
“I have some money from my mother, and I plan to use it to open a bakery. And I think I’ll see if I can get some backers for frozen baked goods.”
Sophie looked at him for a moment. “The Tree-borne ambition is alive and growing.”
“Maybe it is,” Carter said.
“What about your father? What does he say to all this?”